Merrill Creek water level update...

[buzzbaiter]

Per NJDFGW:

Although the reservoir is currently down almost 10 ft, it is approximately at 90% capacity. This condition has occurred due to the limited precipitation over the last few years, summer and winter. The reservoir watershed is extremely small due to the fact that it is located on top of Scotts Mountain and therefore receives very little runoff as compared to other lakes.

The Merrill Creek Owners Group plans on pumping more water back up (from the Delaware) but it is not being considered until next year at the earliest. It is very expensive to pump water back up so they need to budget accordingly. The other deciding factor is that they can only pump during times when the river has adequate flow which restricts when they can pump, as per DRBC regulations.

Although the shallow areas in the coves are very exposed as indicated in your photos there's still lots of water! Good thing they planned for that when constructing the boat ramp.

When the shallows are re-inundated with water the aquatic vegetation will be slow to reestablish, thus favoring Smallmouth over Largemouth Bass. which I view as a good thing